Censorship Is ‘Dialogue': Byron Report’s Brilliant Doublespeak

I haven’t read all 226 pages of the report that psychologist Tanya Byron recently prepared on children and technology for the UK’s Prime Minister. But skimming through the relevant sections about videogames, one astonishing example of doublespeak caught my eye.

On the subject of the UK law that allows the government to refuse to issue a rating to violent games, thus making their publication a criminal offense punishable by an "unlimited" fine and two years in jail, Byron writes:

[T]he provision is used as a way to initiate a dialogue between the classification body and developer and therefore leads to changes being made to many video games (e.g. introducing ‘solarisation’ effects to reduce the impact of death scenes), which avoids complete rejection.

"Initiate a dialogue!" How delightful! Here is an example of a dialogue that is often initiated by this law.

Government: If you release this game, we will take all of your money and throw you in jail.